As seen in Issue 5 of Uncaged Book Reviews
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L.R. Johnson
Young Adult/Paranormal
Since her father’s mysterious death, Lauren Cowley has been stuck in a pitiful rut until she begins having ominous encounters, haunting her every move. While attempting to break free from her wretched life she meets Donovan. He is tall, dark, good-looking, strangely familiar – and yet terrifying. His unexplained ability to stare deep into her soul with emotionless eyes frightens her, yet she has no desire to break free from the gravitating pull he has on her. He unlocks her passion…and suppressed memories forcing her to fight for everything she loves. Lauren now has to face the reality of demons and the tragic consequences they have had on her life.Â
Uncaged Review: There are a couple ways authors handle descriptive paragraphs and chapters in books, some are just right and you can easily see the characters, feel the emotions and feel like you are standing next to the characters as you read the book. Some are not enough, and some are a bit overdone and slows the book down for the reader. This one will fit in the latter one. Throughout the book, there is so much over explaining, too many adjectives and adverbs – that it bogs the book down. It’s almost like the author didn’t want to use the same word twice. It’s a little hard to concentrate when there is a conversation going on between characters, but an additional two paragraphs of feelings or descriptions are placed in between the dialog. It happened more than once that I almost forgot the last dialog, and had to go back and look at it to remember what they were even talking about because of these unnecessary additions.
Now once you get past this part and/or get used to it, the writing and the storyline is actually pretty good, but hang in there while you slough through the first few chapters of some of the most depressing and emotional part of the book, and if you make it out without having to take Xanax, you’ll find the story does pick up interest and become what it is meant to be.
Donovan is an enslaved soul/demon that he willingly gave away his soul, so he was able to keep his physical body, and is still trying to hold onto whatever humanity is left inside him. Lauren, the heroine in this one, has such low self-esteem, acts very immature and overly emotional and needy most of the time. I did not connect with her, as much as I did Donovan.
I think this is a good start to a new series, but this one does end on a cliffhanger, so be prepared for that at the end. Some people will love the way it’s written and others may just get used to it, but it is an enjoyable read once you get into the book deeper. Reviewed by Cyrene
3 1/2 Stars
